Taste Adaptation

Taste adaptation is a decrease in the perceived intensity of a taste during prolonged stimulation. A sweet solution held against the tongue, for example, can gradually seem less sweet. The term describes a change in sensory experience over the course of stimulation, rather than the original strength of the solution .¹

How a substance reaches the tongue matters. Experiments comparing ways of presenting sugar solutions found greater adaptation when a soaked filter paper remained on the tongue than when participants sipped the solution or it flowed across the tongue. The concentration also affected the early rate of adaptation .¹

A laboratory demonstration therefore does not mean that a taste must fade to the same extent during ordinary eating or drinking. Changing contact between the stimulus and the tongue can disrupt the process. To interpret an adaptation result, it is useful to distinguish the taste's starting intensity from how that intensity changes over time .¹